2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Hornwort can be found anywhere in the world - both in the tropics and even in the Arctic Circle. Under favorable conditions, it grows so abundantly that the underwater thickets created by it quickly displace other plants. Hornwort is used mainly as an aquarium plant, but it can be easily settled in garden ponds. Slowly flowing or stagnant bodies of water are the best habitat for such an attractive plant
Getting to know the plant
Hornwort is a perennial herb that grows in water. It can grow at completely different depths - the hornwort itself selects the most optimal depth for itself in each particular reservoir, since it is shade-loving and very sensitive to light (too bright lighting can destroy it).
Although the roots of the hornwort are absent, special whitish branches of the stems, called rhizoid branches, help it to stay in the bottom sediments. The leaves of these branches are very thinly dissected. Penetrating into the silt, the rhizoid branches serve not only as anchors, but also act as absorbing organs.
Rising from the water, the rather hard stems of hornwort, containing silica, are quite well expressed. Their characteristic feature is an extremely poorly developed conducting system, in connection with which mineral substances are absorbed by the entire surface of plants. And the tracheids of this marvelous plant, in which the once important function of carrying water has completely died out, perform the functions of storage cells - a large amount of starch is deposited in them.
The whorled sessile leaves of the hornwort are dichotomously dissected twice or thrice (sometimes more). The finely serrated end lobes of the leaves, containing lime, have a rather hard and brittle consistency and can break on contact with them. By their appearance, the leaves are somewhat reminiscent of needles. Both the leaves and all other parts of the hornwort are covered with small hairs. In addition, all its parts are also covered with a cuticle - this is the name of a film of cutin (a fat-like substance completely impermeable to gases and water). Such a coating is another distinctive feature of the hornwort, since it is almost never found in higher aquatic plants, and, as a rule, it can be seen only in brown algae.
Small hornwort flowers form reduced inflorescences and have no petals at all. A characteristic feature of flowers is that they are pollinated under water, which is a huge rarity. The fruits of the plant are small nuts with thorny outgrowths.
Why is hornwort useful?
The benefits of hornwort for aquariums can hardly be overestimated. In aquariums, it serves as a barrier to excessive growth of algae, which feed on organic substances coming from the nutrient substrate into the water when plants are transplanted. By absorbing all kinds of nutrients directly from the water, hornwort lashes are able to make healthy competition with algae. It is noteworthy that its branches almost never grow with algae.
Hornwort is an excellent natural filter, the thin fluffy twigs of which attract a variety of debris: both waste products of aquarium inhabitants, and the remains of food that have not been eaten by them. In this regard, periodically the hornwort must be removed from the aquarium in order to thoroughly rinse it. This plant is also surprising in that if you throw the debris of the branches formed during its washing into the water, these branches will give life to new, no less fluffy bushes.
Hornwort is also good in that its active huge biological surface releases oxygen in fairly decent amounts, which not only contributes to the rapid purification of water and the speedy oxidation of organic residues, but also significantly accelerates the growth of fry. The hornwort placed in the spawning grounds is also an excellent substrate for spawning of spawning fish. Moreover, not only fish, but also birds, including domestic ones, feed on all types of hornwort.
Growing hornwort
Hornwort is very unpretentious - it feels equally good both in moderately warm water and in cold water, however, it can still react to an excessively sharp change in parameters by dropping leaves. He has no special requirements for the acidity of water, as well as for its hardness.
The following parameters will be optimal for keeping hornwort: water hardness - in the range of 5 - 15, acidity - in the range of 7 - 7, 5, temperature - 20 - 30 degrees.
The most important factor for the well-being of the hornwort is good lighting. If the aquarium is well lit, then in just a week this plant can grow 15 - 20 cm, forming a kind of underwater jungle. But if there is clearly not enough light for the hornwort, it will begin to wither.
The fluffy handsome man reproduces by cuttings and dividing shoots. It is undesirable to plant the hornwort in the ground, pressing it down with pebbles - the lower part may begin to rot. The best way to plant it is by attaching a small suction cup to the bottom of the aquarium and gently fixing fluffy bushes on it. The growth of new stems should be limited periodically, otherwise the hornwort will fill the entire reservoir.
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